God's Creatures (2022)

"Brian" (Paul Mescal) has recently returned to his family home on the west coast of Ireland to a warm welcome from his mother "Aileen" (Emily Watson) and a largely indifferent one from his father "Con" (Declan O'Hara). For reasons we are not told, he has returned from Australia and is soon determined to pick up his ailing grandfather's oyster farming business. Despite knowing very little about this, he knuckles down and with the help of some "borrowed" half-grown's from the seafood factory where his mother works, seems intent on making a go of things. All is set fair until one evening, "Aileen" has to pay a visit to the police station where she learns of an accusation, a very serious accusation, being levelled against the apple of her eye. She reacts defensively, and firmly, as any mother probably would - but as the remainder of the story develops, we see her begin to reconsider her position. Might he actually have done what he was accused of? The story itself is all rather weak here, sorry. Some beautiful location photography and loads of lingering shots of folks having cigarettes doesn't really ignite this. The narrative is put together in a rather bitty, unconvincing, fashion and though Watson is on great form as the increasingly conflicted lady, Mescal offers very little beyond his hail-fellow-well-met character and the underlying gist of the story is seriously undercooked. It does offer us a glimpse of the difficulties faced by those making a living in this harsh and unforgiving environment and perhaps I will think twice before I eat an Irish oyster again, but I think too much emphasis has been placed on who is in this film rather than developing a story that has depth and detail and holds the attention of the audience. It is worth a watch, and it's co-produced by BBC Film so the telly at Christmas is sure to be a place to find it.